Forsaken By Adbusters (My response to that magazine's recent call for submissions.)

I have a long-standing love-hate relationship with Adbusters. Of course, while I've generally been a promoter and defender of that publication... the editorial staff has only deemed one simple letter worthy of publication out of of the many things I've submitted over the years. Now, I realize that my various submissions may have gotten lost in the shuffle, and I know that my work could sometimes use some refinement and editing. But aside from the instance surrounding that single letter... I've never merited a single word of encouragement from the editors. Hardly a pitiable sob story so far, I know, but please hear me out for just one more paragraph while I elaborate on the subtleties of this relationship as I see it.

Trust and Relationships

Our willingness to express our hopes and fears is matched by the proportional likelihood that we will be manipulated and exploited accordingly.  This isn't to say specifically how often the latter will happen when we open up, but people are undoubtedly manipulated along these lines by those they've trusted.  The breakdown of the family in modern America suggests a limitation of unconditional love and almost everyone has witnessed basic betrayals of trust.  Many of us have, consequently, become more guarded when establishing relationships.  Our subsequent lack of openness further impedes our ability to form various forms of relationships and this, in turn, creates a negative feedback loop based upon the fact that we know information is being withheld from us -- which causes us to be more suspicious of others and, therefore, emotionally guarded and distant.  
Politically, when the realities of surveillance and opportunistic maliciousness are added, issues of trust and healthy relationships are complicated further.  We have a difficult time simply establishing basic personal relationships, but establishing trusted political alliances can be far more daunting.  It's possible to get lucky in terms of love or affinity groups, but it would be better if luck were less of a necessary factor in these regards.

Crises Can Be Openings: Defeating our enduring fatalism.

This article was written by Sasha Lilley.  She’s the author of Capital and Its Discontents from which this piece was taken.   http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/99/crises-can-be-openings.html

The past several years have witnessed the spectacular unraveling of capitalism, or so it has appeared.

 

Venerated investment banks have vanished overnight, titans of industry have permanently shuttered their doors, and rich nations have lurched perilously close to default. The ideology of the free market, once seemingly unassailable, lies in tatters. While the death knell of capitalism may not yet be tolling, the crisis is undoubtedly of a different order of magnitude than anything seen in decades.

#OCCUPYWALLSTREET (A shift in revolutionary tactics.)

 

For more information see:
Adbusters: A Shift in Revolutionary Tactics
The #OCCUPYWALLSTREET Update
Search for the hashtag via Twitter. 

Even if you are not an anarchist...

(I probably won't write too much more about Reddit on my blog, and I'm sorry if it seems like I've been focusing too much lately on the subject of internet communications, but this is something I wrote in an attempt to help establish a more open and accountable subreddit for people interested in ideas about anarchism.  If you don't already have one... I hope you'll consider opening a Reddit account if only to subscribe to this forum.)  

This post is about intellectual honesty. As some of you may know, there has been a great amount of dissatisfaction with the style of moderation displayed in the r/anarchism subreddit. This has been a simmering issue for several months. Unfortunately, up til now, there has been little that could be done about it since r/anarchism associates itself with the basic name of the philosophy (even though, at best, it only partially promotes that philosophy). More to the point... the moderators are widely panned as hardly being anarchists at all. They ban sincere anarchists at a whim, they invite trolls from other subreddits by harassing those forums, and their primary method of communication consists largely of logical fallacy and obfuscation. In short... they are helping to give anarchism a bad name. Perhaps that's by design, perhaps it's due to a collection of personality disorders, but the bottom line is that the philosophy of Anarchism -- in it's historical & contemporary forms -- is not adequately presented on Reddit.

Reddit, Anarchism, Guerrilla Marketing & Racism

As an unrepentant news junkie I often peruse Reddit, submit articles for consideration, and contribute to various discussions on that website. And, in general, I like a lot of the stuff I find on Reddit -- from the mundane (r/starcraft & r/poker), to the profound (r/TrueReddit & r/BadCopNoDonut), and everything in between (r/reddit.com). That said... Reddit has some persistent problems which I feel reflect negatively on the whole site. Some of these problems you may care more or less about, and maybe all the problems aren't of equal importance, but these are some of my thoughts about Reddit which I hope might make the site better.

The r/Anarchism Subreddit is NOT an Anarchist Community.

I know that not everyone reading this is an anarchist (and may hardly have anarchist leanings at all), but the things is... many of those who post in that subreddit (including the moderators) are hardly anarchists either! This leads to a situation where people who may be curious about the philosophy could stumble upon the r/Anarchism forum and thereby become misinformed and/or turned off by the ideas they see presented there. This may very well already be the reason why some people would never consider themselves anarchists!

Some of you might think that I'm making much ado about nothing, as if the subreddit were entirely inconsequential, but the fact is that r/Anarchism is a forum which ranks very high when doing a basic Google search for the term "anarchism." So... I'm suggesting that it is actually influential about what some people think about modern anarchism. Those who value honest discussion (whether they are anarchists or not) should therefore take issue with an "anarchist" forum which actually does very little to promote the philosophy.

END:CIV – RESIST OR DIE – Full Documentary

From http://submedia.tv/endciv/

Philosophical Ramblings About Freedom, Chaos & Predetermination

For those who know me personally... it's no secret that I dwell in the mundane almost as much as I dwell in the realms of radical politics and other esoteric/technical ideas.  In large part, I find this to be a basic necessity if one wants to socialize at all in society. 

To the extent that people want to personally discuss more profound subjects, I find this to be difficult for (at least) a couple of different reasons.  First of all, a lot of us are often incapable of having a true conversation because we approach such encounters with an agenda -- even if just subconsciously.  We often tend to steer conversations back toward certain topics (and ways of viewing things) which we are comfortable with.  Along those lines... it's very hard to stay on the same page when facts and ideas are misheard, misunderstood, misinterpreted, imagined, or falsified.  For these reasons, I like to participate in written forums where ideas can be presented in their entirety and statements can be quoted directly and accurately -- while supporting sources of information can be provided as linked.  Secondly... I don't generally trust people all too much.  I won't get into all the reasons again, but suffice it to say that some people are overtly manipulative and often seek information they can use for their own potentially malicious interests.  Between these two realities, as I said, I find it difficult to discuss many ideas with people in casual conversations. 

That said... with intelligent companions, a bottle of rum, and a pack of smokes... some interesting ideas can be fleshed out and articulated.  I'm not too proud, or ashamed, to say that's what partially inspired this article.  And so... I will try now to lay out some ideas from last night's conversations.